Anniversaries

Anniversaries

TODAY: Births: Stphane Mallarm, poet, 1842; Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, composer, 1844; Rudolf Diesel, engineer and inventor, 1858; Arthur Neville Chamberlain, statesman, 1869; Wilfred Owen, poet, 1893; Friederich Robert Donat, actor, 1905. Deaths: St Edward the Martyr, King of the English, murdered 978; Ivan IV (the Terrible), Tsar of Russia, 1584; Philip Massinger, playwright, 1640; Sir Robert Walpole, first Earl of Orford, statesman, 1745; Laurence Sterne, clergyman and author, 1768; Sir Henry Simpson Lunn, travel agency founder, 1939; Farouk I, ex-king of Egypt, 1965; Umberto II, ex-king of Italy, 1983. On this day: in Tolpuddle, Dorset, six farm labourers were sentenced to be transported for forming a trade union, 1834; the American Express Company was organised at Buffalo, New York, 1850; the planet Pluto was discovered, 1930; the first ``walk in space'' was made, from the Soviet spaceship Voskhod 2 1965; 700,000 barrels of oil were spilled into the sea when the Torrey Canyon oil tanker grounded off the Cornish coast, 1967. Today is the Feast Day of St Alexander of Jerusalem, St Anselm of Lucca, St Cyril of Jerusalem, St Edward the Martyr, St Frigidian or Frediano and St Salvator of Horta.

TOMORROW: Births: Georges de la Tour, painter, 1593; Tobias George Smollett, physician and author, 1721; Dr David Livingstone, explorer and missionary, 1813; Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, ballet impresario, 1872. Deaths: Arthur James Balfour, first Earl Balfour, statesman, 1930; Edgar Rice Burroughs, novelist and creator of ``Tarzan'', 1950. On this day: Sydney Harbour bridge was officially opened, 1932. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Alcmund, prince of Northumbria, St John of Panaca, St Joseph (husband of the Virgin) and St Landoald.